Re: Upgrades to software, other platforms.
Linux on old? Hmm. Depends upon the Linux and the old. I happily ran a couple of Linux versions on an old Thinkpad 21, till an automatic update removed the ability to boot. Back to XP.
Of course, I was optimising my time and effort by giving up (and coming into possession of an old Mac that had a BSD plus X11 under the hood much better and faster than the Linux stuff at the time). No doubt I could have fiddled, reinstalled, sought yet another version of the guilty libraries, recompile this and that with some more or fewer or changed options.
But informatics is my job. My spare time is too precious to waste. So now it is OSX and rather decent terminal emulator or twm with X11 when I want more than just point and click.
Now imagine the 99% of domestic computer users, who do not get a thrill out of spending their hard earned money or dwindling pension on the latest hardware and want just to turn on, handle email, perhaps write a letter or CV, use the WEB and do some online banking and perhaps store some photos, music and watch some Youtube (I describe the relatively sophisticated user here).
You are the equivalent of the child building his first crystal wireless. That you can make old kit useful, given time, knowledge and the software, is irrelevant to the people who actually make the creation of hardware and software profitable. That's why people like you (and me) are highly unlikely ever to create a Nokia, Apple, Samsung or Google success on even a small scale.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
